The Monday after Thanksgiving, otherwise known as Cyber Monday (which I blogged about in my Holiday Retail Strategies) I had the pleasure of joining the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) Chairwoman Dana Todd and about 25 other fellow New York SEMPO members to help ring the opening bell for NASDAQ. Included below is footage of the NASDAQ studio in New York’s Times Square, as well as exclusive interviews with Dana and SEMPO spokesman Greg Jarboe courtesy of Max Kalehoff of Clickable. You can see the back of my head for about 2/10 of a second in the beginning of the video:) LOL
Showing posts with label SEM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SEM. Show all posts
Optimization Tips That Will Give Your SEO Rankings a Boost for the Holidays
With the Christmas holiday peaking around the corner, it still isn’t too late to tweak and optimize a dedicated holiday search marketing campaign. A few weeks ago I wrote about holiday retail PPC strategies as well as holiday ecommerce pay per click strategies. Today I wanted to focus on link building and local search optimization.
Link Building & Organic SEO - Ideally, you should well on your way to building links for the holiday season. While low level link building such as blog commenting and directory submissions provide good passive SEO, more active efforts such include:
- Paid links - Directly bought, or through sponsorships and partners.
- Widgets & Quizzes- Incorporate pop culture and symbols of the holiday season in to build links.
- Good Ol’ Link bait - Get viral, and spread the season’s cheer over social networks such as facebook and twitter.
Local Search Optimization - Don’t ignore local search for online shopping queries and conversions. Some tips to follow include:
- Change titles to reflect holiday shopping keywords such as New York Toy Store Christmas Gifts.
- Ask for reviews in all holiday email campaigns with links to appropriate local business citation sources, in both the US and Canada.
- Ask staff, family, and friends to leave reviews on Google Local and on other sources with context to Christmas and Christmas gifts.
- Use Google Coupons to stand out from the rest of the listings. Especially in today's tough economic times, coupons can go a long way!
- Complete all fields in the local business centre that many businesses leave blank: store hours, methods of payment, links, contact details etc.
- Buy P.O Box addresses in cities or areas represented by your business, but where you do not have a physical location.
- Insert keywords in your business name for core products and/or services. This can boost conversions
- Also very important, be sure to select the correct local category listing
- Last but not least, don't forget to optimize for zip codes - a trend I've noticed lately has been an increase in 'search term' + 'zipcode'
Have any additional tips? Feel free to add them in the comment section!
48 Questions to Qualify Potential Search Marketing Vendors
Ok, so some of you may be saying...don't you offer these services? Why would you want to tell people how to 'screen' you? Well, the answer is two-fold. In the best interests of my potential clients, they should know what and who they are hiring. The more informed they are the easier my job becomes and more time is spent on achieving results rather than explaining 'who I am'.
Secondly, if I know what is going to be asked I can have a great response ready, and more importantly, I can be prepared to explain the answer in layman's terms (ie. easily understandable).
So, onto the questionnaire for initial screenings:Dear [Prospective SEM Vendor],
Thank you for entering into a dialog with us as we vet potential SEM vendors for [Name of Company]. In order to keep the process as streamlined as possible, please take a few minutes to respond to this questionnaire. Our goal is to not waste your time.
The answers can be as detailed or short as you deem appropriate. We look forward to the process of getting to know your company better. We're happy to read articles on-topic originating from your agency, if you provide the URL in any question's answer. Thank you in advance for your efforts.
Pay Per Click
1. Is anyone in your firm AdWords Qualified or a Yahoo Ambassador?
2. Does your agency have a designated Google or Yahoo rep?
3. What is your agency's revenue model for PPC: percentage of spend, percentage of revenue, monthly fee, hybrid?
4. Do you have a monthly PPC minimum spend or fee?
5. What method does your firm use to manage PPC: by hand, by automation (what tool), hybrid?
6. Do you use our credit card, your agency's or another method? How will you invoice us?
7. What reports do you typically send clients and at what interval?
8. What PPC channels are you experienced with (Google, MSN, Yahoo, Facebook, etc...)?
9. How does your agency measure PPC conversion and ROI?
10. Is it in your vocabulary to do multivariate landing page/ad message testing?
11. How much PPC spend-cash do you handle annually?
12. Please submit 2 short PPC case studies highlighting success.
13. Please submit 1 short PPC case study highlighting failure.
14. Please submit 2 PPC client-references.
Organic Optimization
1. What link-building tactics and methods will be employed?
2. Does your agency have a content creation practice, or will you guide us in building out our content?
3. How do you measure organic prominence in light of Personalized Search?
4. What keyword research tools are used?
5. How does your agency measure organic conversion and ROI?
6. What methods are used to mine competitive intelligence about our competitors?
7. What is the billing model for organic-related services? (retainer, hourly, flat monthly fee, etc...)
8. Do you test organic landing page performance with PPC?
9. What steps do you take to insulate clients from becoming too dependent on Google?
10. Please submit 2 short organic case studies highlighting success.
11. Please submit 1 short organic optimization case study highlighting failure.
12. Please submit 2 organic optimization client-references.
Social Media
1. What channels are you currently active in for clients? (StumbleUpon, Digg, Facebook, etc...)
2. Give examples of how channels might be used to bolster the overall SEM effort?
3. What reputation monitoring tools will be used?
4. What is the frequency and substance of your reputation reporting?
5. What is your experience with open source blogging software like WordPress?
6. What are your typical non-blogging uses of blog-style software?
7. Please submit 2 short social media case studies highlighting success.
8. Please submit 1 short social media case study highlighting failure.
General Vendor Qualifications:
1. How many full-time employees in the agency? What are their roles?
2. What SEM conferences did you attend in the past year, and which do you plan to attend this year? (SES, PubCon, SMX, etc.)
3. What SEM conferences will your staff speak at this year?
4. What trade publications, online or paper, do you write for and on what topics?
5. Please submit 3 links to articles you or your employees have written.
6. What forums is your agency "known" in? (SEW, Sphinn, Cre8asite, etc.)
7. Links to your profile pages please
8. Traditional affiliations (BBB, Chambers of Commerce, etc...)
9. SEMPO member?
10. Does your agency have in-house programmers and designers or do you outsource?
11. If outsourcing, what are your partner-vendors' URLs?
12. What analytics other than Google Analytics are used?
13. Is there an in-house method to measure offline conversions (phone, etc.)
14. What experience does your agency have in local/mobile?
You might eliminate questions that don't apply to your company's specific marketing application or outside of your comfort zone. Any agency that's worth its salt will welcome the opportunity to participate in a focused vetting process.
Giving credit where credit is due...content derived from Marty Weintraub.
eBay Pulls AdWords Advertising Dollars!
Well, it isn't often that Google gets a slap in the face ... hardly ever actually ... sure, there are teh impending lawsuits here and there but usually whoever has the most expensive lawyer wins that battle ... and we all know how deep Google's pockets are!
So, now eBay has signed an exclusive advertiser deal with Yahoo! Could Yahoo be making a move to take back some market share?
Read below:
Report: eBay Pulls AdWords; Google Protest Crumbles
eBay has discontinued its advertising through Google's AdWords platform in the U.S., reports InfoWorld.
The move comes as the latest in the equivalent of a corporate chess match between Google and eBay. The two have been circling each other for a while, largely over eBay's decision to disallow use of Google's Checkout system for auctions on the site.
eBay owns PayPal, one of the biggest online payment services, and a direct competitor to Google Checkout. The camel's back may have been broken over Google throwing a protest party on the same night eBay held a merchant's conference dubbed eBay Live.
Officials within eBay deny the decision to divorce AdWords is tied to the party plans but the company also admitted it isn't thrilled that Google was making such a move.
Yahoo signed a deal with eBay making it the sole provider of search and display ads on the auction site, something that also might be playing into making this decision. The move affects only US AdWords campaigns and was labeled by eBay as simply an experiment in ad dollar relocation.
UPDATE: Google apparently canceled the party, reports TechCrunch. You can read Google's statement on the cancellation here.
48% of Users Polled Plan To Increased Spend with Yahoo!
So, for those who I interact with on a regular basis throughout the week, you already know my feelings toward Yahoo's Search Marketing Platform - before and after the 'Panama Project'.
That being said, the survey below completely shocked me because most folks that I speak with usually have the same feelings ... low ROI, not very user friendly, awkward Dashboard, horrendous editorial review, the list goes on and on.
I'm curious to speak with someone who would agree with the survey. Is there something they know about Panama that I don't? Is it the products they are selling / promoting?
If you have had success with Panama and plan on increasing your advertising spend as a result, please take time to share with me.
Enjoy the read!
That being said, the survey below completely shocked me because most folks that I speak with usually have the same feelings ... low ROI, not very user friendly, awkward Dashboard, horrendous editorial review, the list goes on and on.
I'm curious to speak with someone who would agree with the survey. Is there something they know about Panama that I don't? Is it the products they are selling / promoting?
If you have had success with Panama and plan on increasing your advertising spend as a result, please take time to share with me.
Enjoy the read!
Resolution Media reveals that not only did surveyed marketers rate Panama highly, 48 percent of them plan to increase spending with Yahoo! because of it.
Since the release of Panama, the announcements of its less-than-stellar Q1 profits and Google's acquisition of DoubleClick have many analysts giving Yahoo! a skeptical outlook. In light of Google's ever-growing empire and Yahoo's disappointing Q1 earnings, can Yahoo still succeed? The results of a recent survey conducted by Chicago Interactive Marketing Association (CIMA) in conjunction with William Blair & Company may make you wonder.
The verdict of CIMA's research
Overall, the state of our interactive marketing industry is strong with 2007 growth predictions near 19 percent and our industry's health rated a virile 4.13 out of five by CIMA members. So what does this mean for the Goliaths that propel our industry's search dollars?
In 2004, Google accounted for 51 percent of searches through its own site and AOL, whereas Yahoo accounted for 43 percent of searches on its own property and MSN. This gap widened drastically in the following years with Google now controlling 64 percent of all search activity. In this year's CIMA study, only 16 percent of respondents characterized Yahoo as the best-positioned portal or search engine, versus 30 percent last year. Google was considered best-positioned by 56 percent of respondents. However, with its release of Panama, Yahoo is shaping up to give Google a run for its ad dollars.
The CIMA survey revealed that 71 percent of participants rate Panama's new user interface as "similar or better than Google's." Why? When asked, "What new feature in the Panama system will have the most positive impact on your business?" the more than 100 CIMA members who participated in the survey responded with: Campaign Grouping, Fast Activation, Keyword Insertion in ad units, and Graphical Forecasting and Bidding Tools. As a result, the CIMA study also revealed that 48 percent of surveyed members indicated they would increase their spending with Yahoo.
Panama and the triangle of benefit
Another reason for the positive peer review of Panama could be Yahoo's realization that in order to move ahead of other search engines, it needs to serve more than just its marketing/agency clients. Truly effective media models create unique advantages for each of the three core media constituencies: marketers, publishers and consumers. Yahoo seems to have recognized this by outfitting Panama with new features that integrate each media constituency while appealing to each individually.
Panama offers marketers the ability to test multiple ad versions to determine which message generates increased CTR and impressions. In addition to the features highlighted in the CIMA research, Panama provides an interface that enables marketers to clone Google campaigns and seamlessly import and apply learnings.
For publishers, Panama's ability to provide increased relevance means higher clickthrough rates. Thus, it will yield more revenue. Publishers are already starting to realize the revenue potential, as evident by the recent exclusive agreement between Viacom and Yahoo for sponsored search and contextual ads.
And lastly, consumers experience faster, more relevant search results due to marketers being better able to manage their creative messaging. Additionally, some of Panama's geo-targeting search capabilities will provide for a better user experience.
The right move
With the purchase of Right Media Exchange, Yahoo provides further opportunity for advertisers, publishers and advertising networks to generate more value from the online marketplace. Right Media will allow Yahoo advertisers greater inventory and audience options as well as increased transparency into the buying process. Publishers will have the ability to immediately capitalize on increased marketplace demand and enable optimal returns on each ad placed by marrying their ad inventory with the exchange's and Yahoo's. Advertising networks will enjoy the same advantages as advertisers and publishers while also giving them a chance to compete with top players due to decreased friction and increased transparency.
Summary
What does this all mean for our industry? For starters, it means that -- despite the fact that Googling has become a recognized verb synonymous with web searching -- Google's stronghold on search advertising hasn't taken the fight out of its key competitors. With Panama, marketers can now meaningfully test their message efficacy on Yahoo and shape their online spots toward their consumers' preferences. Publishers will generate more revenue from each page view. Consumers can find what they are looking for with greater speed and accuracy, and with results that are more targeted to their queries.
Yahoo has given the marketplace and consumers a worthy complement to Google. Today, I'm betting that Panama will help Yahoo close the gap with Google in the coming months; and not only because 71 percent of CIMA participants rated the Panama user interface as similar or better than Google's. Yahoo will overtake other smaller competitors that have been grabbing share by appealing to one or all of the three key constituencies. At the end of the day, Panama creates competition, and that's good news for the entire industry.
Matt Spiegel is the managing director and founder of Resolution Media. Read full bio.
Ads across Multiple Sites Yield Higher Conversions
Advertising overlap on multiple sites has a significant impact on consumer conversions, according to "How Overlap Impacts Reach, Frequency and Conversions," a study by aQuantive's Atlas Institute, writes MarketingCharts.
The study finds that consumers are more likely to convert after viewing ads on multiple websites; therefore, it would be more accurate for marketers to attribute conversions to a full set of impressions and/or clicks rather than the current industry standard of attributing all online conversions to the last impression (or last "click"), according to Atlas.
Some key findings from the study:
- Consumers reached across multiple publishers were twice as likely to convert as those reached solely through a single publisher.
- 90 percent of the consumers that converted were reached by placements other than the last ad seen.
- Two out of three consumers who eventually took a responsive action were reached by ads across multiple portal sites before converting.
A previous Atlas Institute study, "The Combined Impact of Search and Display Advertising," found that sponsored search and display advertising together provide a 22 percent higher conversion rate over search alone.
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